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Conspiracism
Conspiracism is a perspective on political, economic, social and cultural public events as concealing the power of malign human, demonic or extraterrestrial forces. Conspiracies are largely propagated by middle class professionals who feel a sense of political defeat. (Source: Aronovitch, David. Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History. New York: Riverhead Books, 2010. page 354.) Among the sillier conspiracy theories is one popular with the Tea Party movement: belief that the United Nations will seize private property in pursuit of an environmental sustainability policy embodied in a treaty signed President George H.W. Bush called Agenda 21. The Alabama State legislature passed a law banning implementation of the treaty in 2012. Following the lead of Alabama politicians ought to be suspect but that didn't stop state level Republican politicians in Virginia and Missouri. In early 2013 Virginia Republican State Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter introduced a resolution calling on the Virginia state Legislature to oppose the U.N. program and Virginia Republican State Del. Danny Marshall introduced a bill banning the implementation of Agenda 21 in Virginia. Republican Missouri State Rep. Lyle Rowland introduced a similar bill in the Missouri House. During an interview with guest former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, broadcast host Stan Solomon claimed that the Obama administration wants to incorporate atheist chaplains in the military to encourage suicide by wounded military personnel: "An atheist chaplain, may they rest in peace, would be the perfect vehicle for convincing wounded warriors that they should end their lives because there was nothing left to live for...' The encounter is amusing for the uncomfortably weak support expressed by Klingenschmitt for an especially poor analogy by Solomon, who described an atheist chaplain as being like a "sensitive cannibal who says grace before he chews your leg off." Belief in a conspiracy of international elites determined to supplant or that has already supplanted democracy with a global authoritarian regime descibed as the New World Order is still popular. That is what apears to ahve motivated 23 year old Paul Anthony Ciancia to engage in a shootout at LAX on November 1, 2013. The contrived nature of many conspiracy theories is obvious. For example, Donald Trump's wingnut pollster Frank Gaffney has sought to promote the idea that President Barack Obama is a "secret Muslim". Health Care Difficult public policy problems tempt the powerless to adopt conspiratorial explanations. For example the claim that the HIV virus was invented by the CIA. Then there are howling stupidities about Obamacare such as the claim that it will require implantation of microchips. A less extreme claim is that the Infectious Disease Society of America or IDSA is controlled by the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies and intent on suppressing the full impact and scope of a range of tick born diseases lumped togther as Lyme Disease. The IDSA serves as the quasi-official enforcer that keeps dissenting doctors silent about the true scale of the problem and in the process makes it difficult for patients to secure effective treatment. War on Drugs Some cannabis users have elaborated a conspiracist pseudohistory around the criminalization of hemp. Much of it stems from a book called The Emperor Has No Clothes by Jack Herer, a cannabis activist. The general thrust of these theories is that something called a "hemp decorticator" was invented in the 1930s that allowed hemp to be refined into paper products for extremely low prices. Newsman William Randolph Hearst and the DuPont Company supposedly had stake in keeping this new cheap paper from being produced. Backed by banker and former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, they unleashed a propaganda campaign against hemp. Any evidence to substantiate this is extremely circumstantial at the very best. On top of this, it makes little sense since Hearst purchased paper, he didn't sell it, and his timber interests were primarily in lumber for construction. See Nonpharmacological Marijuana The Answer To Our Environmental Problems It would have been in his interest to adopt the new, cheaper paper. See Debunking the Hemp Conspiracy Conspiracist Blogs * What Does It Mean.com Parody The silliness of conspriacism inevitably invites parody, as in the amusing theory that the animated televison show Smurfs (and now two film)s are covert propaganda for communism: Here's Why Some People Think the Smurfs Are Jew-Hating Communists Sources * The Conspiracy Meme Ted Goertzel. CSI. January/February 2011. Links * Political Lexicon * James Tracy * Red Baiting * false flag operation * Stella Tremblay * Self-radicalized * UFO External Links * Before Its News * Krugman: Conservatism is now “a sort of cult” Salon